Smartphone addiction in teenagers is not an unknown condition for parents. As a parent, one notices their child being glued to their mobile device 24/7, Snapchatting, Facebooking or posting random photographs on Instagram, exploring different gaming and dating apps, playing video games etc. It is an undeniable fact that social media has altered the way of communication in teenagers. Smartphone addiction can affect children in many ways, a few of them are listed below:
1. Effect on Brain Function
Children who are addicted to smartphones may face release of dopamine due to the Internet addiction. Dopamine is a chemical that allows us to feel pleasure. This means teenagers addicted to smartphone feel satisfied as long as they are allowed to use their mobile device. In case, their smartphone privilege is taken away from them, they start feeling depressed and agitated.
2. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep is extremely important for the healthy growth of your teenager. But an excessive attachment to technology may cause sleep deprivation and insomnia. The constant connectivity provided by smartphones interrupts sleep.
3. Exposure to Adult Content
The smartphone allows children to explore whatever they want. Teenagers often come across adult content on the web while using their cell phones and may explore pornographic and obscene content.
Take Help from FamilyTime App
Rather than completely denying the privileges of a smartphone, parents need to teach their kids that disproportionate use of screen leaves a negative impact on children. Smart parents take control of the dangers associated with the smartphone with the help of digital means i.e. by taking assistance from parental control apps such as FamilyTime.
FamilyTime app provides a number of features to parents in order to provide a safe use of the smartphone to teenagers. Using FamilyTime app parents can:
- Schedule an auto lock. Parents can define a certain time limit on their child’s screen use.
- Lock their child’s device at any time of the day.
- View the list of installed apps and saved contacts on their child’s smartphone.
- Check the web browsing history and app usage frequency of different apps on their teen’s smartphone.
- Block inappropriate, questionable and dating apps.
- Monitor call logs. Parents can see the complete details of received, dialed and missed calls on their child’s cell phone.
- Track the text messages sent and received on their teen’s smartphone. This helps parents in saving kids from dangers like cyberbullying and sexting.
These are not the only features provided by the FamilyTime app. To explore all the advantages of having FamilyTime app, you can download the app from Google play store or from iTunes and enjoy all its premium features for complete 3 days for free.
